LIT ANALYSIS #1

1) Basically a lady going through a midlife crisis... JK. kinda.. Edna Pontellier has your basic early 1800's perfect life. Perfect husband, perfect kids, perfect social status. Until they decide to go on a vacation and a certain friend changes Edna's view on life. She has her best friend, Adele, who shows her what life should be like with her freedom of expression. Then to top it off, Robert, a man who tends to pick married women and spend the summer with them, picks Edna to hang out with. They start out as just friends but we all know that when people say "just friends", it's never "JUST FRIENDS", so they fall in love with each other but neither will admit it (SKINNY LOVE). So Edna goes back home but wants to be free and be one with her art. She leaves her husband and her kids and goes to live alone. Robert returns but tells Edna he can't be in an adulterous relationship with her and he leaves. Edna realizes that she screwed up and that she's now completely alone and kills herself.
2) The theme that I got out of this book is that your actions always have consequences. In this case Edna was extremely selfish and he ending was not a happy one. She didn't keep her family in mind when she had multiple affairs, when she wanted to be free, and kind of like karma, she ended up alone. It didn't have to end that way but her mind games got to her and she thought that was the only way to truly be happy.
3) I think the authors' tone was a bit disapproving. Chopin didn't exactly make marriage look desirable. The way Edna was always so sad and depressed, showed that Edna preferred to be alone and free but she wasn't able to obtain that.
a) The way Edna and Leonce communicated with each other was always fighting or a sad tone.
b) The way Edna thought about her husband and their marriage.
c) The verbal abuse Edna experienced.
4)
Gothic tone- extremely gloomy, depressing and sad in characterization and imagery.
Irony- Leonce constantly acknowledging that Edna spends a lot of time with Robert.
Foreshadowing- A constant reminder of the sea being a big part of Edna's life, used as a symbol of life but ultimately being Edna's ending.
Symbolism- Birds were also mentioned a lot in the book. The signified the empowerment or the motivation to be free. It was mentioned at the beginning and also when she was dying.
Setting- 19th century, took place in Grand Isle and New Orleans.
Allusion- Indirectly referred to a women's expectation in the 19th century, she was trying to show that women can be more than what society called for.
Antagonist- Edna had many enemies in this book and not all were exactly human. Sometimes she was the protagonist but also her own antagonist. Although her main antagonist was her husband.
Imagery- Many times it was shown that Edna was unlike the other mothers in her town and that she had that certain something that made her different and was the reason Robert fell in love with her.
Theme- I know I already wrote about a theme but I want to do another one on Feminism. I loved that Chopin showed that women don't need to be dependent on a man to be happy. Women have been looked down on since the beginning but we can be just as strong as any man and even stronger. The social order that Chopin was trying to get out of was great.
Apologia- when Edna killed herself she thought it was the only proper way to say goodbye and be forgiven for her sins and she thought she had nothing else to live for, for she had failed at everything she tried to attain and that was how she thought it was justified.

1) Chopin used direct and indirect because the readers needed to be able to understand the difference in how people viewed Edna and Edna viewed Edna. Both are important and essential to see Edna's struggle. Direct- "There were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day. She liked then to wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places. She discovered many a sunny, sleepy corner, fashioned to dream in. And she found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested. There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why—when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation.” Indirect- “but whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.”
 2) I don't believe the author changes her diction or tone when talking about characters because the whole book is kind of an angry, sad, vent on society. Edna was never truly able to be happy because everyone kept holding her back.
3) Edna was definitely a dynamic character. The whole book is literally about her becoming an independent woman.
4) I guess I felt both. I didn't really like Edna... she made a commitment to her husband and her kids and she just decided to up and leave them because she wanted to be free. like no... I guess it hits home more than anything and it pissed me off. If she wasn't sure what she wanted when she was younger she shouldn't have made that commitment.